President Obama responded to the figures by declaring that “this country has never responded to a crisis by sitting on the sidelines and hoping for the best”.
Folks, we have gone awry in our haste to embrace a service economy and outsource manufacturing.
According to Doug Noland, the Portfolio Manager for Federated Prudent Bear, “the U.S. is doomed unless it rebuilds its manufacturing base. To really turn things around, we need to build an economy where we can produce things, and there is very little being done today that addresses this fundamental requirement. Unfortunately, over many years we had gotten to the point that all we were trading for imports were financial claims."
The expectation for people to be disciplined, focused and responsible has become increasingly rare in this world. We have to seriously look at fundamentally rebuilding the economy. We’ve got to use this moment to shift our mindset in a direction that breeds success.
Product Design Entrepreneurs
You have probably heard how web-based and iPhone software development companies can now be formed and launched with little or no capital investment due to the proliferation of software component technology and open source software. Many software companies are now starting without venture capital, and are financing themselves from savings or small investments from friends and family.
You may not be aware that the sames trends that are benefiting web and iPhone developers are now paying off for engineers, inventors and product innovators. They now have the ability to assemble a low-cost design platform for as little as $500 - $1000. Making it is now possible for engineers and designers to satisfy their entrepreneurial yearnings with very little out-of-pocket expense. An earlier blog post titled "Netbooks + Freemium Software = Low Cost Design Platform" explains how.
Successful Alibre Design Entrepreneurs
Alibre just finished exhibiting at the 2009 Pacific Design and Manufacturing Show. We were pleased to see that the exhibitors and attendees were upbeat in spite of the down economy. Show floor traffic was not quite as high as last year, but it was pretty good nonetheless. Rapid Prototyping vendors and service bureaus had a lot of traffic, as did the Medical Design and Manufacturing exhibit area.
We were also gratified that many Alibre customers stopped by the booth to talk to us about how they are using our product. Our customers have a lot in common with each other. Many of them are small business owners that are also the primary product innovator and designer for their company. They have literally taken their product ideas and turned them into successful companies.
Another common theme is customers that use ExpensiveCAD at work who have discovered that Alibre Design is the perfect CAD choice for their own consulting business or for creating that breakthrough product they have always dreamed of.
One Alibre customer, Jon Henderson, President of Sienco, Inc. (www.sienco.com) even brought a recently designed and manufactured medical measurement device by our booth to show us. Stephen Luse President of Ortho Kinetics, JoeCardoza President of EZ Connector Inc., and John Sylora President of Universal Multimedia Inc. all came by, as did many others. All in all, many great examples of entrepreneurial engineers living the dream of creating and manufacturing products that form the backbone of their successful businesses.
I strongly agree, we need to re-construct our manufacturing bodies within the infrastructures of our small towns as well as the larger citys across the USA. I am making my own stand by providing this and at the same time training those who only know how to work at thier now extinguished jobs. Check out my website and see the program of the future to train personel and also revive manufacturing. http://www.deservedservices.info
Posted by: Charles Cecil | March 17, 2009 at 11:24 AM